Is Social Media Putting An End To Holiday Cards?

For decades, Larry Lew sold Christmas cards and other greetings from his store in West Hartford center.

But in July, he closed The Greeting Shoppe for good — a casualty of the Internet and, he said, young people’s tendency to stay in touch on social media and avoid licking envelopes.

Sending holiday greetings the old-fashioned way — through the mail — has been in decline for decades. Even though holiday cards account for about the same percentage of all first-class envelopes sent in a year now as they did in 1987, according to survey data collected by the U.S. Postal Service, the total volume is but a fraction of what it was.

In 1987, each household sent an average of about 31 holiday cards, according to the data. In 2012, each household sent about 15.

“I've seen it go up and down, and now all I see is it really going down,” Lew said. “It's the e-cards. People under 40 don't really send cards.”

“It’s the Internet,” he said. Younger people “never talk to each other.”

Post office data support Lew’s impressions. In 2012, people under 35 years old sent an average of 13 holiday greeting cards per household, down from 19 as recently as 2010 — and fewer than 35- to 54-year-olds, who sent an average of 20 per household in 2012. The average number of cards sent by 55-and-older households dropped from an average of 20 cards in 2011 to 15 cards in 2012, the data show.

“The people that are older still send cards out,” Lew said. “Kids in their 20s and 30s, not so much. At my store, I used to cater to younger kids … but those people don't go to the store any more.”

Holiday cards still comprise the largest portion of personal correspondence. Nearly 2 billion holiday cards were sent in 2012 and 2011, down slightly from the 2.07 billion sent in 2010.

But many companies that once sent cards through the mail to customers and clients now unleash hundreds of e-cards with a few clicks.

And the poorest households are giving fewer holiday cards over the last few years. In 2012, households with income below $35,000 sent an average of only six cards. The richest households sent an average of 22.

But the Internet has made it easier for some to send holiday cards, said Natasha Rankin of the Greeting Card Association.

“We live in a really busy world,” she said. People are trying to “fit this in to what's already an overwhelming time of year.”

Some card companies allow customers to go to their websites or use mobile apps to select, customize, sign, address and mail holiday cards without touching a single stamp, she said.

“That's growing,” Rankin said.

Lew adopted that trend. He continues to run his business from his home in Chester, but now it’s online only. Customers can still order holiday cards with personalized messages and upload a list of addresses, but Lew can’t offer the personal touch he used to, he said.

“People always came into my store,” even if they were customizing their cards online, Lew said. “I would check their addresses and all that. Make sure everything was done right to protocol. That's why people came to me.”

Eventually, the cost of rent and the pressure from the Internet forced him to close his doors. Plimpton’s stationers, another West Hartford fixture for years, is also closing for good this month.

Younger people “text and send an email, but social correspondence is pretty much a thing of the past,” he said. “My business was thriving because of people who sent letters and notes. … Now they just send an email.”

The greeting card companies still hope they can leverage people’s tendencies to be social online.

“People who like to communicate and like to share look at any media as an opportunity to do so,” Rankin said. “People can share their sentiments on Facebook as well — but we're still a society and community that enjoys to share, and we look forward to those long tell-me-about-your-year letters.”

“When I was in business, my store was open six to seven days a week,” Lew said. “People who came into my store came up to me and I came up to them, and that's what I miss.”